View From Bennett Avenue

Well it seems clear that television ratings are driving the decisions being handed down by the NCAA this season. How else to explain that Cam Newton and the Buckeye Five are playing in bowl games? And this "I didn't know?" defense is unbelievably lame. But again, once the decision is made to let these kids help drive television ratings, an excuse has to be drummed up. And so sportswriters ran around talking about some supposed "loophole" in the NCAA rules regarding Newton, despite the fact that it is pretty clear about not selling your services and that parents and guardians are considered the same as the player when it comes to recruiting, and now with these jokers the school comes out publicly to state that they did a poor job explaining a rule that is common sense. Let's see, you do not get paid to play and your are not allowed to even have a job during the school year, but you can sell your uniforms and trinkets and get free tattoos? Yeah right. It is a sad lie to make that to cover up cheating you admit the players are morons. You see Ohio State, it is one or the other. You are cheating or are stupid.
The other excuse being handed down for these kids is that times are tough and that they did this for their families. But a closer look at the crimes pops holes through that one. I have no idea about the finances of any of the families involved but an aspect of the charges are that Terrelle Pryor and others received free tattoos. I am unsure how the families could eat the ink on their sons' arms but maybe they know something that I do not. And this goes back to the compliance issue for OSU. If you are going to say that some of your kids are so poor that they need to sell stuff to help their families, then why didn't the presence of hundreds, possibly thousands, of dollars worth of tattoos not sound an alarm? If they are so poor that they need to sell this stuff then they cannot afford tattoos. And if they are too poor to afford tattoos, but have tattoos, then they got them for free.
The NCAA must come down hard on this as it is very easy to sell memorabilia today and a booster or agent could easily offer a kid more than a jersey or ring is worth to keep the kid happy. But by avoiding the bowl game, the NCAA is basically saying that seniors or underclassmen who could go pro--like Pryor--can break the rules and still play in a glamorous bowl game. Meanwhile I lost the little respect I had left for Ohio State and coach Jim Tressel after the way they handled Maurice Clarett.